Snaps @ruthilicious

March 2, 2011

It is engaging to watch the Digital Filipino interviews that Social Media guru, Janette Toral has been sharing in her site. The most recent interview is with Asia Pacific Centre for Research (http://www.acreinc.net) CEO Nick Fontanilla.

Although I do not have a very high influence when it comes to making decisions in our company (I work in a multinational company, and I can say that I am only a small fish in a huge aquarium), I can somehow relate how business is being managed. I used to handle a store in my previous job and I know how hard it is to analyze and defend monthly Profit and Loss Reports. What is harder is to run the business everday, setting a daily target to meet your monthly target, and making adjustments when you are behind the figures. One may consider running a marketing initiative to increase sales and sustain business.

I agree that one should not only focus on how many sales a store/company makes in a month, but should also consider the losses (production costs and all uncontrollable costs). Bottom line is, having huge sales is not always a good thing. Check your expenses and costs to produce that sale - one might be surprised to know that the last cell of the excel report might show negative value. Check and decide which costs can be controlled (say, hardcopy documents or soft copy?), which processes can be eliminated (manual which requires more manpower or automated which needs new application) and which areas to re-design (review of current processes and systems). Consulting firms are even a great help in decision making, as they can present you with figures based on facts and not just perception.

The information presented on this interview is not only applicable to big companies but more importantly to small businesses which are just starting out. Before you can call your business a corporation - it is important to be updated with how the economy is moving and how the figures would affect your business and strategies.